baby shower

Last night was Sheila's baby shower! Sheila & I have been friends since late elementary school. She & her family are in the country for a few months to have a baby, before heading back to Indonesia, where they are missionaries. I am so grateful to have her close during this exciting event!

A quilt from her mom, Betty.

Misty read a Bible verse (Psalm 139:13-16) in English & then Sheila read the same verse in Indonesian, so that we could hear her speak the language she's been learning this last year. It was so cool!

Sheila & me.

Sheila's water broke this morning & baby Owen be arriving so soon! I just can't wait to meet him & am praying for a safe delivery!

cohen is 5!

On Sunday, we celebrated Cohen's 5th birthday, after church at my parent's house!

Becca (the one with the cake decorating skills!) made a super cute, Toy Story cake.

The sweet birthday boy!

We held Finn back for as long as we could, but he just wasn't happy until he was right next to his cousin. :)

Mandatory self portrait. :P

Cool gift from Memaw & Papa - a pogo stick! Too bad it says it's only for kids. :P

Cohen & his family
Tyler, Sadie, Aaron, Cohen & Becca

Happy Birthday, Cohen!
We love you so much! You are such a fun cousin & a great friend.

birthday party

Finn requested a watermelon cake for his party. He wanted it to taste like watermelon, not just look like one...which is probably a good thing cause I definitely didn't get the cake decorating skill in our family! ;) I followed this recipe & had to look at 6 different stores to find watermelon jello...apparently it's seasonal. Go figure!

I also made some chocolate cupcakes for the non-watermelon lovers!

Oh, so excited!

Technically, there are 5 candles (as Tyler pointed out) but I thought he should have more than just the #4 candle. :)

Photo by Amy
(The previous two photos, as well. Thanks Amy!)

So many fun presents!

Finn had a crowd of family & friends there to celebrate his day!

Memaw & Papa even found a mini watermelon for Finn. He ate some for dinner, after the party. :)

Happy Birthday Finley!
We can't believe you're 4 already! We are so blessed to have you in our lives. Your energy is admirable & you say the most creative, insightful things! You have an amazing imagination & Cedar sure loves playing with you. We can't wait to see what you guys come up with as Cedar gets older & you work together more! We love that you are getting more excited about drawing & writing & we admire your interest in building creations out of legos & blocks! What an adventure you are going to have this next year. We love you!

birthday morning

We created a new tradition, created last year, of decorating the house for Finn to wake up to in the morning. :) He was SO excited!

Cedar liked it too! Though he was threatening to ruin it multiple times, so we let Finn run through & tear apart the streamers. So fun!

Since Finley's birthday fell on a Saturday this year, we let him open his gifts right away. We were having a party for him later in the day, so we decided to spread out the celebration!

The grenade he's been wanting! It's pretty cool, for a weapon toy. It ticks down to exploding after you push the button, but if you bump it to roughly, it explodes! :)

Cedar was excited to see Finn's gifts. Pretty fun when your brother has a birthday - more toys to play with!

On a whim, I picked out a Lite Brite for Finn. I'm glad he was so excited to open it...it seemed like something he'd like!

We ate pumpkin pancakes for breakfast at Finn's request & played with toys until it was time for the party...

early birthday

We celebrated Finley's 4th birthday early (November 3rd), since Outi was going to Finland the next day.

We ate Finn's request of hamburgers for dinner & had yummy cupcakes for dessert!

A gift for Cedar, too. Maybe it was for his half birthday...or maybe just because! Either way, he loved it!

Cool new Kid K'nex!

A bug flashlight from Nanalee & Papa Lew. It arrived that afternoon, just in time for the celebration! :)

The very happy birthday boy!

Cedar loves cupcakes, too. He calls them "cookie" but he's got the right idea. ;)

fall portraits

Since Kenton's declaration that we would not be getting professional photos done again (too stressful to be worth the price), I had to work on getting them done on my own (on a couple of different days). I focused on Finn on one sunny day, our family on a different day & Cedar on a 3rd, separate, sunny day. Between the three photo shoots, I managed to get some pretty great smiles. Certainly not easier (in my opinion) than spending an hour at the photography studio, but I am definitely much more pleased with the results! :)

Our family
Finley, Kenton, Cedar & Katrina
(Done with the camera timer)

Finley
The four year old!
(Birthday photos to come...)

Our boys, together

Cedar
The 18 month old!

A few more that didn't make the cut, but are still kind of sweet:

Cute Cedar expression

Sweet brothers :)

Special Note to Mummi: Your printed copies are ready & waiting for when you return from Finland! :)

trick-or-treating

On Halloween night, we started the festivities by trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. I'm really glad we did. It was fun to watch the kids get so excited. Cedar figured it out pretty quickly & was soon running right along with Finn to get to the next house. He didn't give up the treats until the next treat was offered; then he dropped what he was holding to take the new treat! :P We had to remind Finn not to walk right in & take what he wanted...we'll have many years to practice! ;)


My 3 ninjas

We met up with my sisters & their families at my parents house.

Cohen, Tyler, Finn, Sadie, Cedar, Griffin & Ronan

I dressed as a Green ninja. Not sure if they exist, but it worked with my clothing choices in my closet! ;)

Memaw & Papa with their grandkids

Becca, Gretchen & Katrina
This picture cracks me up cause we didn't notice Ninja Finn in the picture right away. He really is a ninja!

Katrina & Kenton

Next stop: Jesse & Carolyn's house...or Frankenstein & the bride of Frankenstein :)

Then we were off to Stu & Jacque's house. Jacque was dressed as Batgirl & their dog Barney was dressed as a chariot? He had a little Roman soldier riding on his back. :P

Jacque's cute Halloween decorations that I totally wanna copy next year! Ghost milk jugs - so great!

Our final stop was a Mummi & Pappa's house where we mooched some real food! I didn't plan dinner very well & it kind of got left out, so we were thankful for some yogurt for "dinner" - to go along with all the candy we had already eaten! :P